Prosecutors Accelerate Investigation into Yoon Seok-yeol's Wife Kim Gun-hee... Raids on 6 Securities Firms and Reinforcement of Specialized Investigation Personnel

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office building in Seocho-dong, Seoul. / Photo by Choi Seok-jin

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The prosecution investigating allegations of stock price manipulation involving Kim Gun-hee, wife of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, is accelerating the investigation by reinforcing the investigation team with financial crime specialists and conducting simultaneous raids.

According to the legal community on the 23rd, the Anti-Corruption and Violent Crime Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Jo Ju-yeon) obtained search warrants from the court earlier this month for six securities firms and is currently analyzing stock transaction records of Deutsche Motors from 2009 to 2012.

The investigation team is also reported to have secured materials from a raid on the Financial Supervisory Service last month, which investigated Deutsche Motors Chairman Kwon Oh-soo in 2013 for alleged violations of disclosure obligations related to shareholdings.

The prosecution is said to be focusing its investigative efforts primarily on verifying whether actual stock price manipulation of Deutsche Motors took place.

The allegations of stock price manipulation involving Deutsche Motors were previously investigated by the police but were discontinued due to lack of evidence. At that time, Kim was not included as a subject of the investigation.

In addition to Kim's alleged stock price manipulation of Deutsche Motors, the Anti-Corruption and Violent Crime Division 2 is investigating suspicions of preferential treatment in trading Deutsche Financial shares and sponsorship allegations related to Kobana Contents.

In April last year, Choi Kang-wook, leader of the Open Democratic Party, and others filed a complaint with the prosecution accusing Kim of participating in stock price manipulation of Deutsche Motors during 2010-2011, citing violations of the Capital Markets Act and other charges.

Since more than a year has passed since the complaint was filed and the presidential election is approaching, the investigation team is under pressure to speed up the investigation and conclude it promptly to avoid unnecessary political controversy.

Meanwhile, the prosecution has reinforced the investigation team with prosecutors and investigators specializing in finance and accounting from late last month to early this month.

First, in the mid-level personnel reshuffle conducted at the end of last month, two financial and securities crime experts, Park Ki-tae (45, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 35) and Han Moon-hyuk (41, Class 36), were assigned as deputy chief prosecutors of the Anti-Corruption and Violent Crime Division 2 at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park, who worked at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office from January 2016 to January 2019, investigated the late Cho Yang-ho, former chairman of Hanjin Group, on allegations of inheritance tax evasion, embezzlement, and breach of trust while serving in the Criminal Division 6 (dedicated to corporate and financial crimes).

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Han investigated the Shinilgen insider trading case as a member of the Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office from February 2018 to last January. He also received Level 2 Certified Tax Specialist (Blue Belt) certification in 2019.

Additionally, the Anti-Corruption and Violent Crime Division 2 recently received four specialized investigators skilled in accounting analysis dispatched from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. The investigation team is also reportedly considering requesting the Korea Exchange to dispatch experts.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.